Giving Compass' Take:

• Horizon Magazine reports on the smartphone apps and wearable technology that taps into a user's emotions, offering customized ways of helping people cope with mental illness.

• Are there privacy concerns with such tech? Will people seek out the professional help they need, even if an app is able to provide temporary relief?

• Here's more on what "first aid for mental health" really means.

The rising incidence of mental health problems places great strain on health systems and societies around the world. In the EU, mental health disorders are already estimated to cost the economy more than $800 billion a year — a figure that is expected to double by 2030.

Given the prevalence of mental health issues, some researchers seeking alternative ways to treat the more common conditions are turning to technology to help.

While there has been a boom in self-help and digital wellness apps on smartphones and tablets promising support for mental health issues, much of the data they generate needs to be first interpreted by health professionals before it can be used in an effective recovery program.

"Most existing apps stop with the data — it’s not part of a program of interventions you can take," said Professor Corina Sas, a researcher in human-computer interaction at Lancaster University in the UK. "At present, data capture is very disconnected with the high-level-type thinking we make in terms of emotional processing."

To tackle this, Prof. Sas and her colleagues are attempting to create more intelligent, interactive technologies that harness information about the emotional states of users over time to automatically offer tailored advice on dealing with mental health issues.

Read the full article about mental health technology by Horizon Magazine (via the Naked Scientists).